


a body needs its rest

by katiesparks



Series: virtue in rest [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Gen, Post-Promised Day, Post-Series, hospital fic, let Alphonse sleep 2k17
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 20:09:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12140172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katiesparks/pseuds/katiesparks
Summary: Edward is an Unmovable Object and, after years of not so much as blinking, Al is finding the prospect of sleep a little daunting...





	a body needs its rest

“I’m scared to sleep.” Al murmured, turning his head to regard his brother. 

“It’ll be okay. You need to rest now.” Ed said back. Al’s hands were lying on top of the sheets to allow for the IVs and Ed held one gently, ignoring the uncomfortable tug of the IV in his own hand. The other he used to smooth back Al’s long, greasy hair.

“I don’t think I can.” Al said quietly.

“Of course you can, Al. You need to sleep. You’re tired, aren’t you?” Ed asked softly.

“The sheets feel weird. And my IV hurts. And I bit my tongue.” Al complained and Ed chuckled.

“Is it bleeding?” Ed asked.

“No.” Al admitted.

“Then you’re fine. It’s okay now, it’s over. You can rest.” Ed coaxed and Al whined.

“No, I can’t, I can’t rest, I don’t want to.” Al shook his head and tried futilely to hold back a yawn. It split through his lips anyways and he shuddered at the involuntariness of it. 

“Are you cold?” Ed asked, eyeing him critically and Al thought about the sensation of cold. Is this what cold felt like?

Al stayed silent, debating over if he was cold or not and Ed reached over him to pull the nurse call string. Down the hallway, they heard a bell ring and the sound of soft soled shoes padding their way.

The nurse entered the room. 

“Oh, Edward, please get back into bed.” She said exasperatedly. She’d given up on ‘Mr. Elric’ three hours ago, when Ed had begun to pretend she was speaking to Al and not him.

“Al’s cold.” He said, ignoring her.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” the nurse turned to Al and put her hand on his forehead. The feeling of her skin on his own was dry and textured strangely. He shivered and he couldn’t say what from.

“I’ll get you some more blankets, Alphonse.” She said kindly. “Now, Edward. Back into your own bed.”

“No.” Ed said stubbornly. 

The nurse sighed and left, shaking her head. A couple minutes later, she returned with a stack of blankets and Lieutenant Hawkeye in a wheelchair.

“Lieutenant!” Ed said, standing and starting towards her. Al didn’t quite cling to his hand, but Ed felt the tug of him getting too far away and stopped.

“Edward, go on and get into your bed. That’s an order from the Colonel.” Hawkeye said levelly as the nurse came in and arranged the blankets on top of Al. The weight felt nice, Al thought after a moment. Strange, though. He’d been able to feel some sort of pressure inside the armor, but this was entirely different. With the addition of the blankets, Al decided he had been cold before.

Ed squared his shoulders in the face of orders. “I resign.” He said firmly.

“I’m not in a position to take your resignation.” Hawkeye said patiently, lips quirking up into the slightest of smiles. Ed opened his mouth and she cut him off. “There are no on duty officers in the building capable of taking your resignation, either. So, listen to your nurse.”

“I want to stay with Al.” Ed said and Al thought he hadn’t sounded so much like a child in a long time.

“Edward,” Hawkeye sighed, “your bed is right next to his.”

Ed eyed the empty bed disdainfully. 

“Edward.” Hawkeye said firmly. “Don’t make me get the Colonel up to come discipline you.”

Al thought of the Colonel, with his blank eyes and his ruined hands and cringed a little. It wouldn’t be good if Lieutenant Hawkeye really went and got him. She shouldn’t have come herself. He remembered the blood staining her shirt and even now, the bandage looked thick and worrisome on her neck.

Hawkeye saw him looking, which was novel on its own. “It’s not anything serious, Alphonse. Your little Xingese friend healed it. The doctors are just being careful.”

“Edward, please get some rest.” The nurse pleaded exasperatedly.

“I’ll rest when Al does.” Ed said stubbornly and Hawkeye’s eyes were as sharp as ever. They roamed Al’s face and she settled after a moment, finding whatever she was looking for. This, too, was novel. He hadn’t been so easy to read for years and years.

“Nurse, I’d like to go back to the Colonel now.” Hawkeye said and the woman looked flustered that her gambit to move the Unmovable Object had failed.

Al heard the low murmur of Hawkeye’s voice speaking to the woman as they walked away, but the words were too indistinct. He focused on the feeling of Ed’s hand in his instead and the queer feeling of his heart in his chest, pounding steadily. It was unsettling.

An hour later, Al was still stubbornly awake and Ed was still stubbornly next to him and they matched in pigheadedness about as well as they matched in general, with their father’s coloring and their mother’s softness. 

The nurse came back in to refill their IVs and asked Ed again to get in bed.

Ed ignored her and she sighed and relented.

Ed yawned and Al did too. His eyelids were drooping. Eyelids were so strange, almost as strange as blinking in general. He never noticed blinking before, but he noticed it now, the way he noticed breathing, the strange feeling of his chest expanding. His skin crawled.

But all of that was slowly becoming less worrisome, less unsettling. 

“Scoot over, Al.” Ed said tiredly after several more minutes and Al obeyed, carefully shifting around his IV lines. His brother slid in on the narrow bed next to him and, even though the physical sensation of it was still so unfamiliar, this was right, somehow. He was so tired.

Ed put his arm around his younger brother and settled him against him as if he wasn’t at all out of practice. 

“Just close your eyes.” Ed said. “You don’t have to sleep. Just close your eyes.”

“Okay, Brother.” Al agreed, because that was reasonable.

Two minutes later, when Al’s breathing was deep and even, Ed breathed in deeply and finally rested.

When she peeked in on them later, the nurse decided while he wasn’t in his own bed, Edward was close enough, and let them be.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a sucker for hospital fic and secretly bitter we didn't get to see any of Ed and Al and their inevitable hospital stay after the Promised Day. I wrote this a couple years ago but why not post it, right?


End file.
